Cole Swensen is a poet and translator. Her eleven books of poetry include a National Book Award finalist and winners of the National Poetry Series, the San Francisco State Poetry Center Book Award, and the Iowa Poetry Prize. She translates contemporary French poetry, prose, and art criticism; her translation of Jean Fremon's The Island of the Dead won the 2004 PEN USA Translation Award. She teaches at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop and divides her time between Iowa, Washington D.C., and Paris.